Service
Inheritance Tax Planning.
The long-term-residence question, addressed before it is settled.
Who this is for
People who typically come to me about this.
Persona 1
Long-term British expats
Resident in Thailand for years or decades and assuming, often wrongly, that UK inheritance tax no longer applies to them.
Persona 2
Holders of a global estate
Assets across the UK, Thailand and elsewhere, exposed to UK IHT on the worldwide estate if a UK long-term resident under the post-April-2025 test.
Persona 3
People sold an IHT product
Were placed in a structure marketed to reduce inheritance tax and want a conflict-free view of whether it works.
What's involved
How the work actually plays out.
A British expat may spend decades in Thailand and still die within the scope of UK inheritance tax. That single fact can determine whether HMRC taxes a worldwide estate at 40%, or whether overseas assets remain outside the UK inheritance tax regime. The rules changed significantly from April 2025, replacing much of the previous domicile framework with a long-term residence test.
The work is to establish the position honestly, plan around the residence and gifting rules in good time, and avoid structures sold on fear that rarely withstand scrutiny.
Long-term residence decides almost everything
From 6 April 2025, the scope of UK inheritance tax follows long-term residence, not domicile. Broadly, ten of the previous twenty UK tax years of residence brings the worldwide estate into scope, and the exposure can persist for several years after you leave the UK.
Diagnosing where you genuinely sit under that test is the first task. Most of the value is in being honest about it early rather than finding it out through the estate.
Planning in time, not in fear
The seven-year clock on lifetime gifts only helps if it is started in good time, and it sits alongside, not inside, the residence test. The structures sold on fear rarely survive scrutiny, the work is the plan that does, made while there is still time for it to work.
Common mistakes
Where this most often goes sideways.
Assuming leaving the UK ended the exposure.
Long-term-resident status, not your current address, decides the inheritance-tax scope. Treating departure as an automatic exit is the single most expensive inheritance-tax misconception expats hold.
Buying a structure sold on fear.
Many IHT products are marketed on anxiety and do not survive HMRC scrutiny. The plan has to stand up, not just reassure.
Starting the clock too late.
Lifetime-gift relief depends on surviving seven years. Left to the last decade, the most effective tool is often unavailable.
How I work on this
The process, in three steps.
01
Diagnose residence status
A written assessment of your long-term-resident position under the post-April-2025 test and the real IHT exposure that follows from it.
02
Plan in good time
Lifetime gifting, the seven-year clock and the will set sequenced while they can still work.
03
Coordinate the execution
The plan documented and coordinated with your solicitor, with the structures that do not survive scrutiny left out.
Fees and what to expect
Plain-English fee transparency.
I am paid through commission on the products arranged and an ongoing fee on the assets managed. Every cost, and what it pays, is set out in writing before you decide.
You may ask what any recommendation pays me, and the figures that apply are agreed in writing in the engagement letter before you proceed.
A first 30-minute consultation costs nothing and obliges you to nothing.
Client assets are held in your own name on FCA-regulated platforms or SEC-licensed brokers, never by me.
Questions
Questions about this.
Begin a conversation.
Thirty minutes, by Zoom or in person at the Bangkok, Hua Hin or Pattaya office. Free, and without obligation. You leave with a clearer view of what is in front of you, whether or not the work proceeds.
Book a meeting
Choose a time that suits you.
Thirty minutes with Richard Knight, ACSI directly. By video, phone, or in person. No obligation.
